Most regular composite wood contains/ added urea formaldehyde. My question is - if my wooden doors do not contain added urea formaldehyde, however the small strips of plywood that are needed to install the doors that are placed around the perimeter of the opening (of the door) are in place right now prior to installation, can I qualify for a point under IEQ 4.4. In other words, right now – we have doors that are approved that contain no added urea formaldehyde. These doors have not been installed yet. However if you go to the construction site, there are regular strips of plywood around the opening of the door that are needed to install the wooden doors. They are small minor strips. These plywoods do not show on any approved drawings or construction drawings. They are basically there for the installers to install the subframes, frames, and the doors. In a nutshell, after the doors are installed, these small strips of plywood will not show because they are underneath the frames, and again they are not shown on any drawings. It is something that is basically done on site. Given the above, can we qualify for a point under IEQ 4.4? and my second question is can these small little plywoods underneath the sub frames emit gases. I believe that they won’t be harmful because they are underneath the sub frames. The intent of this credit is to reduce the quantity of indoor contaminants that are odorous.
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John-David Hutchison, LEED AP BD+C, PMP
Sustainability ManagerBGIS
LEEDuser Expert
166 thumbs up
May 16, 2014 - 3:20 pm
No, in order to meet the requirements, all "Composite wood and agrifiber products used on the interior of the building (i.e., inside the weatherproofing system) must contain no added urea-formaldehyde resins."
To answer your questions, urea-formaldehyde, a know carcinogen, can off gas for quite some time. As well, this credit is also in place to protcet the workers, not only the end users.
Jon Clifford
LEED-AP BD+CGREENSQUARE
LEEDuser Expert
327 thumbs up
May 19, 2014 - 7:04 pm
Jack – NAUF plywood is becoming the norm, so you may be jumping to a faulty conclusion. Urea-formaldehyde is much less common in “regular” composite wood than it used to be. For example, the APA (Engineered Wood Association, formerly the American Plywood Association) won’t put the APA label on composite panels that contain urea-formaldehyde. APA panels typically use phenol-formaldehyde resins, which are acceptable under EQc4.4.
Just as it would be wrong to assume that all composite wood has no added urea-formaldehyde (NAUF), without evidence, you cannot be sure that the plywood installed on your project contains UF. Find out from the sub that installed the blocking where they purchased the plywood. The vendor may be able to identify the manufacturer. Also look for mill stamps on the plywood. From there, you may be able to obtain manufacturer’s data confirming that the plywood is NAUF.
It’s best to be proactive. If a project is pursuing EAc4.4, the project Specifications should clearly require all wood composites to be NAUF. Specs should also require contractor & vendors to submit product data or MSDS sheets to the Design/LEED Team for approval before these products are purchased, delivered to the jobsite, or installed.